The invention relates to a device for a controlled transfer of transport containers from a loading station to an unloading station, especially for a packaging-suitable transfer of fresh or non-smoked sausages, portioned and shaped in a sausage filling machine, to a packaging machine, the device comprising a transport means to which the transport containers are controllably connectable.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,976 a transport device of this kind for automatically transferring portioned sausages from a sausage filling machine to a packaging machine is known. The transport means is in the form of a horizontally arranged continuously driven transport wheel to which transport containers suspended from a carrier can be coupled or decoupled at will. The carrier is in the form of two rails arranged vertically above one another and spaced apart. The transport wheel is positioned between the rails.
This transport device has successfully been employed in practice; however, it is disadvantageous that the transport containers at the loading and unloading stations are suddenly braked by sliding onto abutments. This sudden braking of the transport containers not only results in a relatively high noise emission, but also in considerable vibrations of the transport containers and the goods contained therein so that occassionally the transport containers will open and the enclosed goods will fall out. Furthermore, because the transport containers are frictionally connected to the transport wheel it is necessary to observe high precision during manufacturing of the device components because otherwise the transport containers will not be properly engaged by the transport wheel. Also, the coupling processes, due to manufacturing tolerances and wear, often are not reproducible. Despite a considerable constructive expenditure the known transport device, which due to the great dimension of the transport wheel also requires very high drive energies, does not provide a sufficient operative reliability.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a transport device with which it is possible not only to achieve the advantages of the known device, i.e., the automated transport and placing into a packaging container of a packaging machine of sausages portioned and shaped at a sausage filling machine without operating personnel handling the sausages, but also to provide for a very exact coupling and decoupling action of the transport containers during transfer as well as parking so that a gentle transport of the goods to be transferred is achieved. Furthermore, the constructive expenditure as well as the operating costs should remain low, and an adaptation of the operating speed of the two machines coupled by the transport device to one another should allow for a facile storage of transport containers within the transport device. A primary object of the present invention is that the transport containers during operation should not abut one another and should not slide onto an abutment without being slowed down so that the operating noise is reduced and at all times a gentle treatment of the goods to be transferred is ensured.